Iran: Amnesty Film On Iranian Women's Movement Striking Global Chord

A video shot by Amnesty International to show its support for the Iranian women's movement is attracting a surprising amount of worldwide attention.

The short but moving film -- posted on Amnesty's website and on YouTube -- was filmed at last month's Amnesty International U.K. Student Conference in the English city of Reading. It features evocative music and shows hundreds of students carrying banners and standing in support of the One Million Signatures Campaign to end discriminatory laws against women in Iran.

Not a single word is spoken.



Heather Harvey, Amnesty International U.K.'s Stop Violence Against Women campaign manager, says the annual student conference is always a big event for participants, but doesn't always generate a lot of media coverage.

This year was different, she says, with the video sparking calls of support from the Iranian diaspora, from Kurdish and other ethnic minority groups, and from student and women's organizations.

"I think it just shows how many people all around the world are actually watching what is happening in Iran and are supporting the women's campaign," Harvey told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.

She said the film is not a direct effort to change Iranian laws. That's for the authorities in Tehran and the Iranian people to do, she says.

"We are trying to show solidarity, to say to the women that we do support what they're campaigning for. They're simply campaigning for equality and for equal rights. [Those] equal rights are perfectly within the framework of the Iranian Constitution, within Islamic women's rights, [within] international human rights. There is no real conflict."

Harvey calls the One Million Signatures Campaign in Iran "extremely courageous and inspiring."

Women's rights activists in Iran are under increasing pressure from the government over their campaign for equal rights.

"What I find shocking, I suppose, is that the Iranian authorities see it as so threatening," Harvey said, "because all it is is women want to have an equal role in building and creating their society. If you exclude 50 percent of the population from decision-making, then ultimately your decisions are going to be flawed because you're not going to be coming up with policies or solutions that are really helpful to the whole of that society."

-- Radio Free Europe

Middle East: MEPI Election Exchange News Coverage

MBC/Al Arabiya October news coverage of MEPI's Election Exchange program.

Qatar: Winning MEPI Video Production

MEPI Regional Office Abu Dhabi is pleased to announce that the short video “Equal Voices, Equal Rights”, an excellent production by young Qatari citizen Ms. Nada Al Saadi, is the winner of MEPI’s first Open Video Contest. Ms. Al Saadi will receive professional digital media training, funded by MEPI, on how to produce her own Public Service Announcements (PSAs).

Jordan: Queen discusses violence against women in latest YouTube response

AMMAN (JT) - In her second response to the YouTube community on stereotypes of Arab and Muslim communities, Her Majesty Queen Rania spoke out on honour crimes and violence against women.

Many of responses and stereotypes which have been posted on the Queen’s YouTube channel have focused on women’s empowerment issues. Specifically, many YouTubers raised the issues of domestic violence and honour crimes committed in the region.

“It is horrific. It is inexcusable. And there is absolutely no honour in it,” the Queen said in her message, acknowledging that while honour crimes do happen in the region, it is not a widespread occurrence.

“It is not a prevalent cultural practice. It has nothing to do with Islam. It is not at all indicative of the status and standing of women in our culture and it is being challenged,” the Queen said.

Her Majesty noted that violence against women “is not exclusive to the Arab world” and is a “worldwide shame”.

At the end of the two-minute clip, Queen Rania listed the progress witnessed in the Arab world and invited viewers to share their experiences of how women all over the world are overcoming social, economic and cultural barriers.

In order to correct stereotypes of the region that plague the Western media, the Queen last month devoted a YouTube channel to bridge the rift between East and West, using the video-sharing website as a platform for dialogue with people across the world.

With over one million viewers from across the world, YouTubers have expressed their interest in learning more about both Middle Eastern and Islamic culture.

The Queen’s latest response can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyCB-ULChV4

The dialogue on stereotypes will continue until International Youth Day, observed on August 12.

-- The Jordan Times

Saudi Arabia: Shura Council Recommends Allowing Saudi Women to Drive With Limitations

On March 17, 2008, Alarabiya.net reported that the Saudi Shura Council has recommended allowing women to drive. The recommendation follows recent efforts by Saudi women rights activists headed by Wajeha Al-Huwaidar and Fawziya Al-Uyuni.

Ten days ago Al-Huwaidar marked the International Women’s Day, March 8, 2008 by driving her car in Saudi Arabia appealing to the minister of interior, Prince Nayef to allow women to drive. Her driving was posted on Youtube and received international attention.

[To view the clip translated into English see MEMRI TV clip No. 1712, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1712.htm ]

The following is a summary of the Saudi Shura Council recommendation.

The Recommendations

A source in Saudi Arabia's Shura Council reports that the council has submitted a recommendation to senior elements in the country to permit women to drive vehicles, with the following stipulations:

• The woman driver must be under 30.
• The woman's driving is conditional upon the permission of a relative [father, husband, brother, or son].
• The woman driver must obtain a driver's license from the center for teaching women to drive.
• The woman driver must be modestly dressed.
• The woman driver will be permitted to drive alone in the cities, but outside the cities she must be accompanied by a relative.
• The woman driver will be permitted to drive Saturday through Wednesday between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM.
• The woman driver must have a cell phone with her, so she can call for help in an emergency.
• The woman driver must pay a certain sum when her license is issued; this sum will be set aside for car repairs.

The Shura Council also ordered the following:

• The establishment of a special women's transportation department; this department will collect the fees.
• The establishment of a telephone emergency center.
• The establishment of transportation centers for women in the cities, which will be under religious supervision.
• The council stipulated that a woman driver who violates these rules will have her license revoked.

In the framework of this recommendation, the Shura Council is required to impose a one-month prison sentence and a fine on anyone talking with a woman driver from another car, and an eight-month prison sentence and a fine on anyone who sexually harasses a woman driver.

A transportation administration source reports that the Shura Council has as yet issued no guidelines for establishing a women's transportation department.

From MEMRI.org

Saudi Arabia: Al Jazeera Coverage of Woman Driving on YouTube (in English)

Saudi Arabia: YouTube Video of Woman Driving

Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider sent a video message -- while driving in the kingdom -- to all Saudi women about driving on International Women's Day.

This is the video:

Saudi Arabia: Women's Rights Activist Wajiha Al-Huweidar Criticizes Middle Eastern Men and Saudi Society and States

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi women's rights activist Wajiha Al-Huweidar, which aired on Al-Hurra TV on January 13, 2008:

(The interview can be seen here)

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: We have raised a generation – I think it began with my own generation – on the belief that we are a special people, that we are the cradle of Islam, that the truth is ours and ours alone, that we are the Saved Sect of Islam. People have begun to believe all these lies, and they use them as pretexts. When we demanded that women be employed in public workplaces, they say: "No, we are a special people." When we demand that women be allowed to drive, they say: "No, we are a special people." No, we are not. In what way are we special? There is nothing special about us. True, we have the two holy cities – Mecca and Al-Madina – but this does not mean that we have a monopoly on religion, and that we are the only Muslims in the world.

[...]

This Saudi patriarchal culture has become prevalent under religious guise, but if you examine everything that goes on in this society, none of it has anything to do with religion. How can it be that people are stripped of their individual judgment, and the Commission [for the Prevention of Vice] is sent to spy on people in the streets, and to determine who errs and who acts properly? Who gave them the right to do this? People have the right to decide for themselves what they do and don't want.

Interviewer: Should women be allowed to decide this for themselves?

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: Of course. After all, they are like any...

Interviewer: Despite this commission?

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: This commission must be abolished, and the day will come when it will be. Look, the early signs that a wrong ideology is dying are fanaticism and extremism. This is obvious. Have you ever seen a dead body that is soft? When the person dies, the body becomes rigid. Similarly, this ideology will become increasingly rigid, and will reach the height of fanaticism, but it is constantly in the process of dying. Take a look at history. Let's examine what happened to the Church in Europe. It becomes rigid and persecuted ideologies, killing and burning scientists, until people rebelled against it, and this led to its collapse. History tells us that this holds true for all ideologies. Communism...

Interviewer: Are you seeing signs of this collapse?

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: This will not happen in our generation. It will take time, but it will happen.

[...]

We, in the East – and I am talking about the East in a broad sense, including Pakistan, Turkey, and the Kurds... The way I see it, these are all wretched people, wretched men. This is obvious. He who has nothing cannot give anything to others. These men have lost what could have given them a real sense of masculinity. They draw their masculinity from Islam, if they are Muslims, of if they are non-Muslims, from the customs and tradition of the very harsh society that gives men more rights than women. Hence, they do not draw any strength from within. In the case of our Saudi society, they draw their strength from the weakness of women too. Most women choose to be weak, because it makes their lives easier. The weaker the wife is, the stronger the husband feels. How can you rely on a man who does not draw his strength from within?

[...]

Do not forget that Eastern men are oppressed both by society and by the authorities. Men face the authorities more than women, and the authorities in Eastern countries are very harsh, to the point that a person can vanish, without anybody ever knowing what happened to him.

[...]

Saudi men strut around like peacocks, as they say, because they were given more than they deserve, and they have authorities beyond what they are capable of bearing. The Saudi man believes he should be president. The moment he graduates from university, he wants to become president. I know that men will say that I am generalizing, but I am talking about the phenomenon, about the vast majority. How come you can hardly find any Saudi laborers? My father was a laborer, and so were many of his generation.

[...]

I do not understand why there is no room for other religions in the vast land of Saudi Arabia. To this day, there is no church for the Christians, no synagogue for the Jews, and temple for the Hindus, even though they constitute a large part of the foreign communities in Saudi Arabia. There are 6-8 million of these people.

Interviewer: There is the notion that Saudi Arabia is the cradle of Islam, as you've said, and that it is the most conservative Islamic conservative Islamic country. That is the response you usually get to such questions.

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: Why do we fear other religions? What frightens us? We should have confidence in ourselves and in our religion. There is no religious text that prohibits the establishment of a church or a temple of any religion. If they want to oppose this in Mecca or Al-Madina – there could be a justification for this, but in the other cities, where there are many foreign workers... How can this be justified? It could be justified because these cities are holy to Muslims, even though Mecca... In my opinion, Mecca should be opened to all the Muslim and non-Muslim peoples of the world. How come the Sheik of the Haram Mosque, to this day, comes from the same family and from the same region – Najd.

Interviewer: What family?

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: It is passed down from father to son in the Subayyil family. Why only this family, and why must it be a family from Najd? How come Saudis have a monopoly on Islam? Are the Saudis the only Muslims? If we want to spread the notion of tolerance towards other religions and sects, the Haram Mosque should be given to the different sects.

Interviewer: Which sects?

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: All of them. Why must the Sheik of the Haram Mosque be of the Hanbali school? Why can't there be a Hanbali sheik one day, and on other days, sheiks form the Shafe'i, Maliki, Hanafi, Ja'fari, and Isma'ili schools? Why can't there be sheiks of other nationalities? Why only Saudis?

[...]

Saudi society is based on enslavement – the enslavement of women to men and of society to the state. People still do not make their own decisions, but it is the women of Saudi Arabia who have been denied everything. The Saudi woman still lives the life of a slavegirl. So in what way are we different from Guantanamo? At least in the case of Guantanamo, many prisoners have been releases, while we remain in this prison, and nobody ever hears of us. When will we be freed? I don't know.